True Bluegrass

1	Leavin' / Tasty Licks 2:44
2	Dark as the Night / Boone Creek 3:12
3	The Old Swinging Bridge / Southern Mountain Boys 2:20
4	I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling / New England Bluegrass Boys 2:51
5	Sally Goodin / Butch Robins 4:32
6	Cabin on a Mountain / Vern Williams Band 2:55
7	Lorene / The Bluegrass Cardinals 3:16
8	I'm Leaving Detroit / Southern Grass 2:27
9	To Hell With the Land / Phyllis Boyens 4:30
10	Sleepy-Eyed John / Frank Wakefield 3:08
11	Letters Have No Arms / The Spruce Mountain Boys 2:16
12	This World's No Place to Live In (But It's Home) / Leon Morris 2:54
13	Home Is Where the Heart Is / Backwoods Boys 2:02
14	Will the Roses Bloom Again? / East Virginia 3:54
15	Montana Cowboy / Alice Gerrard 2:19
16	Banjo Bounce / Allen Shelton 2:39
17	Midnight on the Stormy Deep / The Tony Rice Unit 4:06
18	God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign / The Lilly Brothers 3:03
19	Who Done It? / Allen Brothers 2:06
20	Heaven / Bailey Brothers & The Happy Valley Boys 2:51
21	Crying Holy / New South 2:17
22	Orange Blossom Special / Blaine Sprouse 1:46

Barnes & Noble

Drawn from Rounder's 1970s bluegrass catalogue, True Bluegrass focuses on lesser-known artists in a field whose deeply personal performances yield nothing to those of the genre's more famous practitioners. As on O Brother, Where Art Thou?, life and death, love and heartbreak, home and family are this collection's timeless themes. Lyrics get no more haunting than Buzz Busby & Leon Morris's "This World's No Place to Live," nor more beautiful and impeccably harmonized than East Virginia's poignant rendering of the traditional death ballad "Will the Roses Bloom Again?" That said, there are plenty of familiar names in the mix. Bela Fleck plays banjo on Tasty Licks' "Leavin'," Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas are members of Boone Creek on a stirring treatment of Bill Monroe's "Dark as the Night" and later join the Allen Brothers on a 1978 cut, "Who Done It?" Allen Shelton's buoyant instrumental "Banjo Bounce" features the estimable Jesse McReynolds (a.k.a. the Jesse of bluegrass's beloved Jim & Jesse) on mandolin and Charlie Collins on guitar. Extra icing on the cake comes courtesy of traditionalist Hazel Dickens, who adds burnished, rootsy harmonies to a cut by Phyllis Boyens ("To Hell with the Land") and supports Alice Gerrard's lead vocal with a piercing tone on "Montana Cowboy." The progressive wing makes its statement via the powerhouse Tony Rice Unit (featuring Rice, Skaggs, Douglas, Sam Bush, and Todd Philips) and J. D. Crowe & the New South (with Emmylou Harris on board). In bluegrass, the circle has remained unbroken down through the ages, an assertion this dynamic album easily reinforces. David McGee

All Music Guide

Like its companion volume (Bluegrass Mountain Style), this compilation offers 22 tracks of classic bluegrass culled from the enviably deep Rounder catalog, but unlike the other album, this one focuses mainly on strictly traditional material and performances, with only a couple of departures into progressive territory. There are great contributions from Joe Val & the New England Bluegrass Boys, whose "I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling" remains one of the most thrilling of a long list of brilliant performances from the Bailey Brothers to the the Lilly Brothers, whose "God Gave the Noah the Rainbow Sign" is presented here in a previously unreleased version. In this context, the Bluegrass Cardinals' relatively slick "Lorene" and Allen Shelton's rockabilly-flavored "Banjo Bounce" both sound a bit out of place, but not in a bad way. As with Bluegrass Mountain Style, this one should probably be sold at mid-price, but there's no arguing with the quality of the material. Rick Anderson